Koç University-TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum Working Paper Series 1510

Abstract:

We estimate the intergenerational transmission of education in Turkey using micro-data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses. We construct a unique historical series of provincial enrollment rates by gender to isolate the environmental effect on parental education using an instrumental variable (IV) approach. The results reveal that the effect of maternal education is not linear and is stronger particularly for daughters. Intergenerational educational inequality decreases over time, with a greater improvement in the case of sons. Village residence and poor labor market conditions are other significant obstacles to girls' compared to boys' post-compulsory education.